Community

Festival Leisure Park are now supporting Basildon Rugby Club’s under 7’s. The young rugby team received a £500 sponsorship from us, meaning a brand new kit and equipment to see them through the season.

Dave Hare from Basildon Rugby Club said ‘Basildon Rugby Club are delighted once again to receive the help of Festival Leisure Park in supporting tag rugby. We have worked together for six years now with a variety of projects, always with Tag rugby in mind. This time, we have spent the sponsorship of £500 on new shirts and equipment for players on our youngest sides, and also bought some new coaching manuals for use with our little ones’.

‘We’re thrilled to be sponsoring the young Basildon Rugby Club team this season.’ said Matthew Chambers, our centre manager. ‘At Festival Leisure Park, we pride ourselves on working with local community groups, supporting where we can. It’s fantastic to help the under 7’s team in playing a sport they can enjoy throughout the year.’

We have supported rugby across the county for many years, sponsoring the tag rugby program at Basildon Rugby Club for many years were senior school pupils are trained to visit local primary schools to teach junior school pupils how to play.

Festival Leisure Park are proud to work with Southend Rugby to bring you Kids Go Free at Southend Rugby.

Southend Rugby Football Club (SRFC) is one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world, founded in 1870. Their 1st XV plays in National Division II South, which is just three leagues below the Premiership. This means that they are in the top 50 clubs in the country and the highest placed club in Essex. The level of rugby is truly outstanding and a credit to the club and town. Being a National Division club they are playing teams from all over the South of England.

As well as having a top flight 1st team the club also has four other men’s teams and also a booming youth and mini section.

SRFC’s mini and youth section has grown at an amazing rate. It now boasts over 400 children and parents and they have teams from under 6’s right up to Colts level. SRFC has links with Saracens & Wasps rugby clubs and regularly gets premiership players down to coach both the senior and junior players. The mini & youth section train and play on Sunday mornings.

SRFC home ground is at Warners Bridge Park, through Temple Farm Ind. Est. in Southend. Did you know that the Brown quarter from the Harlequins strip was taken from Southend Rugby Colours?

But SRFC is more than just a rugby club. They host lots of other functions including wedding receptions and parties etc. Also there are loads of events and entertainment all through the season –

“We are trying to make the 1st team home games a fun day out for all the family regardless of whether you like rugby or not. At some games we have bouncy castles and entertainment for the kids and also BBQ’s and outdoor bars for the adults….. so there is something for everyone”

The Basildon SOS Bus is located at Festival Leisure Park every Friday and Saturday night from 9pm until 3am, helping vulnerable people at the site well into the early hours.

It acts as the first point of contact for those whose well-being is threatened by an inability to get home, illness or injury, emotional distress or vulnerability.

The bus is being run by the YMCA, who manage the Southend SOS Bus, and manned by trained first aid volunteers. Staff have access to the medical centre on the downstairs of the bus for those presenting minor injuries, ensuring less serious problems are treated on the spot rather than going to hospital. The bus offers support to individuals at Festival Leisure Park, helping the overall night time economy and reducing crime and anti-social behaviour caused by alcohol misuse, therefore reducing the number of alcohol related arrests or admissions to hospital.

During the week the bus travels around the district promoting awareness of health issues, drug and alcohol misuse, benefits advice, housing, community safety and services for children and young people.

Support throughout the year will include Essex’s Cutest Canine competition with The Enquirer, a dog of the week feature on our Facebook page, Dogs Trust volunteers visiting Festival Leisure Park and much more.

Dogs Trust Basildon, the charity’s 19th rehoming centre has been newly built in Wickford near Basildon in May 2014 and has been a labour of love for the charity. The rehoming centre has 69 glass fronted kennels and care’s for up to 120 dogs at any one time. This equates to around 1000 dogs each year.

Festival Leisure Park is celebrating its 20th birthday in 2017, and we want to thank our community for all the visits you have made to us in that time.

We have set up the My Community team to give back to our community. The team can come to your fundraising or community events, providing practical help and support free of charge.

Do you have a school or church fayre coming up and are looking for fun new stalls? We can come along with one of our great games, run the stall, provide the prizes and most importantly hand over all the money to your organisation.

Do you need an extra pair of hands to help out at an event? How about a few people to read to residents at a local care home? The My Community team want to help!

If you have an event, occasion or request you’d like the My Community team to come to, please send an email to info@festivalleisure.co.uk with the below information:

Name:
Organisation:
Contact number:
Contact email:
Date &amp; time of activity/event:
Location of activity/event:
How can we help you? <em>(Please give as much information as you can)​​​​</em>

We’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Please be advised we may not be able to attend every function but we will try!​